


Relax Take It Easy

by DGCatAniSiri



Series: James Vega Romance [3]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-06
Updated: 2015-08-06
Packaged: 2018-04-13 08:03:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4514268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DGCatAniSiri/pseuds/DGCatAniSiri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Normandy's docked at the Citadel, so James and Shepard decide to go on a date.</p>
<p>What could possibly go wrong?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Relax Take It Easy

Stepping out of the men’s room, the first thing that James Vega heard was a whistle of approval from Steve Cortez. “You’re looking very... dapper, Mister Vega,” came the pilot’s bemused remark as he gave James a onceover. It wasn’t that James’s attire was too different from normal – Shepard kept the Normandy on a fairly casual setting when they weren’t out fighting Reapers and Cerberus. Still, jeans and a non-Alliance t-shirt were not his normal attire. But the circumstances were special this time.

James Vega was going on a date. 

“Thanks for the approval, Esteban.”

“So, what brought this about? Don’t tell me you took Allers up on that dinner interview she talked about,” Cortez said with a laugh. At one point, the reporter had come down to the shuttle bay and made what had at least sounded like a pass at both of the armory officers. Though scuttlebutt had it that she’d accidentally done the same thing with Commander Shepard and that there was something happening between her and Specialist Traynor, so who knew for sure?

Of course, Diana Allers wasn’t his date today. “Not this time, Esteban.” James headed for the elevator, not for the first time questioning why the primary airlock on the ship was in the CIC. It seemed like a security risk, at least to him. 

Steve followed him into the elevator, now curious. “So who is it, then? I mean, doesn’t this mean someone finally ‘bought tickets to the gun show’?” he asked, looking like he couldn’t believe he’d said that with a straight face.

James’s response was to give him a friendly punch to the arm. “Cute, Esteban. This is... kinda important to me, alright? If this doesn’t end up working out like I want... I don’t want it causing problems for... anyone.”

Cortez was a smart man. He could connect those dots – this was someone on the ship, and someone who was with the Alliance. Probably a superior officer, too, if he was worried about it causing problems for them. And if it was a superior officer, there really was only one possibility for who that could be. 

Before he could say so out loud, the elevator reached the CIC, letting them out in range of various other crewmen. Since Cortez was trying to let James and his date have their privacy, he wasn’t going to say anything about it. “Well, enjoy your leave, Mister Vega.” He smirked as James headed for the airlock. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t!” 

James did his best not to scowl at his friend’s mocking tone. That was just the way he wanted to lead in to what could be the most important date of his life.

After all, it wasn’t every day you got to have a date with Commander Shepard.

While he’d be among the first to admit that he was somewhat out of his depth with wooing a male superior officer who’d saved the galaxy multiple times over, he was willing to admit that just about everyone was in the same boat there. It was just that he was the one who was taking that risk. Let it never be said that James Vega shied from a challenge. It was just that he needed to figure out how he was actually going to do this. 

After all, it wasn’t everyone who got to go out on a date, be in a relationship with Commander Shepard. Really, all things considered, that had thrown him off, that this had happened at all. He’d known going in to joining up with the Alliance that he was going to meet a bunch of people who were going to be attractive. He’d known there was a good chance he’d find someone he’d get serious about. He hadn’t expected it would be with a superior officer. And he’d really been taken by surprise by it being a man. James had little history with other guys – mostly he’d just looked, not touched, considering his interest to mostly be on the aesthetic side.

Of course, Shepard had blown that to hell. He’d listened to James when he’d had no one else to go to, when he’d needed someone to unburden himself to. He had been a rock James had needed, not just when the ghosts of Fehl Prime had gotten kicked up but even before that, when they’d had to leave Earth behind to the Reapers. He’d kept James grounded, in a way that no one had. That had done more for him than he’d been able to say. If he’d jumped off Normandy once they’d docked at the Citadel, he’d probably have taken some front line assignment that would have gotten him killed within a day. But Shepard had kept him on, helped him realize that going back to Earth or going to the frontline wasn’t where he’d do the most good, and he’d done it in a way that hadn’t made James feel like he saw him as a fool for his early bull-headedness on the subject. With all of that, how could James not have come to feel something more for Shepard?

Sure, Shepard was his CO, but there was a war on, one for the continued existence of all life in the galaxy. Rules about fraternization got fuzzy at that point. Assuming they made it through, since it wouldn’t really matter who was dating who if they lost this fight or got themselves killed, no one would really be in a position to judge anyone for who they were with. There wasn’t really any guidebook at this point, but the point of all this was to make the go of it that they could, since tomorrow they might not be here.

_Okay, Vega. Now you’re getting morbid._ Those were duty thoughts. He was here to relax with... Well, with his boyfriend.

James crossed from the docking tube to the Citadel proper. Double-checking his omni-tool for where he was supposed to meet Shepard, he hailed a taxi, taking him towards the Presidium. He’d coordinated this with Shepard, figuring that he’d had enough surprises in recent days. They’d meet at a shopping center, spend some time there, then go see a movie that they’d pick there (Shepard had made it a condition that it not be Blasto, apparently having had some kind of bad experience with the film crew), and then down to the Silversun Strip for dinner (and, Shepard had already assured him, the first mention of anything in reference towards the sushi bar would result in an immediate end to the date), then maybe a round in the simulator, and back to the Normandy. Nothing fancy or anything, just a simple night out. 

It shouldn’t be difficult in the slightest. Yet James was still nervous as hell.

The taxi dropped him off as expected near the Presidium. James glanced around, trying to spot Shepard. After a moment, he caught sight of the distinctive red-striped leather jacket Shepard had last worn on shore leave, during all that weird shit with the Cerberus clone. Hopefully that wasn’t some kind of omen.

Normally, James would have no problems with yelling to get Shepard’s attention, but the word of the day was ‘low key.’ So he made his way towards Shepard, noting when the other man turned around. James felt his heart jump when Shepard smiled at him. He couldn’t help the smile that came up at Shepard’s approach. 

“Hey, loco,” he said, and he realized that his voice slipped into a desire-fueled husky tone. It was hard not to be explicit in his interest for Shepard when he got a chance to see the more casual side to him – the leather jacket and jeans wasn’t a look he’d wear in Normandy’s CIC. But casual looked good on him. 

“James. Glad you could make it,” Shepard said teasingly. “So, what exactly is our plan for the day?”

“Figured we’d keep it simple. Lunch, a movie, maybe hit up the shooting range, and dinner. You good with that?”

“Sounds good. Let’s go.” Shepard turned and motioned for James to indicate where they were going. 

***

“You’re gonna love this place, loco. First time I came to the Citadel, it was the best food I’d had since leaving Earth. Almost beat my abeula’s cooking, though don’t ever tell her that.” James was practically bouncing as he led Shepard through the Wards. They’d left the Presidium and started heading for the lower areas, the places on the Citadel that humanity had first moved into and began introducing themselves to the galaxy. 

The area wasn’t full of the shining towers that the Presidium had, but it was still nicer than the area of Zakera Ward where Shepard had routinely docked during his preparation for the suicide mission. Still, it probably wasn’t an area where people expected to see Commander Shepard. That had been another factor in James choosing it. Shepard was in an area no one expected to see him in, wearing civilian clothes instead of his armor. Without restoring to a wig and facial hair, it was the best way to hide Shepard’s identity from the people who were interested in swarming him with requests for autographs and endorsements, among the ones in better taste. 

They found their way through the busy streets of the Ward. The refugee situation was still bad across the Citadel, particularly in the lower areas of the Wards, where they were being packed into tent cities. Despite that, it seemed like a lot of the refugees seemed to be trying to make something out of the homes they’d been forced into, making this place into something a little respectable. 

The refugee camps began to give way to businesses, some corporate, others more of the ‘mom and pop’ restaurant variety. Shepard had had a CO prior to his assignment to the Normandy who’d said that it wasn’t diplomacy or negotiations or anything like that that properly introduced a species to others, it was food. Sit people down across a table from one another, have them see one another and go through whatever appropriate rituals, you get a better idea of their character than you would from a dozen diplomatic conversations. Shepard had never found cause to argue with the man.

“The way you’re building this place up, James...” Shepard said, a gentle warning. 

James waved off Shepard’s concern. “It’ll live up to it, promise you, Loco.”

They proceeded through the winding path and found their way to a small building. It probably had once been the center of the commerce in this section of the Wards.

It wasn’t anymore, though. The doors were locked, the lights were off, and there was a sign on the door. “Closed due to... war draft?” James exclaimed.

Shepard made a face – there were probably a lot of reservists and retired military who’d been called back to duty due to the war. If the restaurant had been run by a vet from the First Contact War, they were probably back in the uniform, fighting the Reapers. It wasn’t that surprising, given the fight going on. 

He put a hand on James’s shoulder. “James, we can find someplace else to eat.” He knew that wasn’t going to be something that would mollify him, but he was trying to redirect the other man’s frustration.

As expected, that wasn’t enough for James. “I really wanted you to try this place, Loco. It was...” He’d wanted their first date, at the least the first part of their first date, to take place somewhere that mattered, somewhere that would feel important.

“I understand, James.” Shepard gently kissed him, attempting to refocus him on the moment. “I understand it was important, but so long as I’m with you, it doesn’t matter.”

James sighed, allowing Shepard to soothe him. “Yeah. Yeah, all right.” He sighed. “I guess we can head up to the Presidium. Apollo’s can’t be that bad, right?”

***

Of course, a side effect of heading to the Presidium was that Shepard’s face was more easily recognizable in places that he frequented. And that meant there were more people who were fascinated by the appearance of Commander Shepard. 

The first occasion of this was on the elevator, on the way to one of the connections towards the Presidium. A couple of students from Grissom, still wearing their red uniforms, recognized Shepard. They were instantly all over him, James ignored. Shepard politely gave them autographs, then posed for a picture for them before they left the elevator. It wasn’t so bad, at least with them. Shepard had been the one who’d rescued them from Cerberus, and, even though James had been part of the mission, Jack was their instructor, and she knew Shepard. It made sense that they’d focus more on him than the grunt on the ground who’d been helping.

Then there was the collection of members of a self-proclaimed Commander Shepard ‘fan club.’ They were much more pushy than the students had been, not asking but effectively demanding autographs and photos. They didn’t endear themselves to James by shoving him out of the way. He knew Shepard hadn’t seen it, or he would have dispersed the crowd then and there. He limited himself to a scowl as the mob kept up the swarm for a good five minutes.

At that point, James had officially had enough. He tried to subtly motion to Shepard that they should get moving, then finally resorted to grabbing Shepard’s arm. “Okay, nice to see all of you. Visiting hour’s over.” With that, he pulled Shepard towards a separate elevator, using his omni-tool to make sure that the doors closed before any of the ‘fan club’ could follow them in. 

“You okay, James?” Shepard asked.

“I thought this was supposed to be our day out, you know? They seemed like they were gonna keep you busy all day.” Now that they were out of the mob, James was starting to think he’d overreacted.

Then Shepard shrugged. “I can’t say I didn’t appreciate the rescue. They were a little... aggressive. And giving them a biotic push would probably have gotten C-Sec involved.” He said it off-handedly, and James was sure that meant that he was deflecting, just trying to put James at ease, rather than scaring him off. It was appreciated, but it also wasn’t really working. 

He was about to say something, what exactly, he wasn’t sure, when the elevator doors opened, revealing Kaidan. 

The three men stood awkwardly for a moment. James knew that there had been something between Shepard and Kaidan, once upon a time. They’d missed that opportunity, Shepard had said so, and Kaidan had never shown any kind of jealousy. But still, walking upon your wish-he-was-an-ex and the guy he was with now... James doubted that could be anything other than ‘awkward.’ And that word had several capital letters in it.

“Shepard. Vega,” Kaidan said with an acknowledging nod. 

Shepard returned the nod. “Kaidan. How’s your leave?”

“Good.” He chuckled. “At the least, I haven’t been called back to work because of a clone of my CO.”

Shepard nodded. “True. I’m sure that helps.” He made a motion to the lift controls. “Are you getting on?” he asked.

Kaidan opened his mouth, then, taking a look at James, shook his head. “You know, I think I’ll just catch the next one. Let the two of you... have your day.” He stepped back to let the doors close. 

James let out a sigh. That could definitely have gone worse. But he still felt some lingering awkwardness – maybe the café wasn’t the right idea at this point. He wasn’t sure he could keep anything down, given the way his day was going. They’d only been official on their date for about an hour now, and nothing was going as planned. James shuddered to think about what would come next.

***

Somehow, though, he managed to get through their lunch at a small, out of the way restaurant. It even managed to go fairly smoothly. James was certain throughout that something would happen – the waiter would ask for an autograph and drop the tray, the ‘fan club’ would reappear and demand all of Shepard’s attention, Cerberus would make another coup attempt. Actually, that last one would have been great – at least that, James could shoot.

Still, the lunch actually went well. Shepard had gone off to the bathroom, and James sighed. Finally, things were back on track for this date. He relaxed in his seat, figuring that the movie would be pretty simple work too. It was going to be a couple hours of sitting. There were plenty of ways that could go wrong, of course, but he figured that most of them were a little more unlikely than most. Even if there was a tendency when around Shepard for the worst case scenario to kick in, the majority of the potential threats on the Citadel weren’t likely to be solved with hand-to-hand or shooting, which limited his responses anyway.

He heard someone sit down across from him and looked up, expecting to see Shepard. Instead, a blonde man with a goatee was now sitting across from him, glaring at him.

James almost reached for a gun that wasn’t there. He managed to limit himself to a responding glare. “Uh, hey, pal. I think you got the wrong table.”

“You’re here with Commander Shepard,” the man said. It was just shy of an accusation.

“Uh... yeah.” James really wanted a gun at this point. This guy was really making him uncomfortable. He figured he could take him – the guy had the look of a civilian, no match for Alliance hand-to-hand combat training – but he didn’t want to cause a scene if he could avoid it. 

“The Commander’s been through a lot over the years. You’d better be careful.”

That sounded very much like a threat. Except James could in no way take it serious, considering the fact that it was coming from a man who’d probably kill himself just trying to lift one of James’s weights, let alone fighting a trained Alliance marine, well versed in multiple forms of hand-to-hand combat. Besides, who the hell was this guy to even demand this of him?

“Conrad?” James looked to see Shepard approaching the table. “What are you doing here?”

The blonde man jumped at Shepard’s approach. “C-Commander!” 

James glanced to Shepard. “You know him, loco?”

“Long story,” Shepard said with a weary sigh. James doubted he particularly wanted to go into detail any time soon, which was fine by him. Shepard looked back to Conrad. “Conrad? Please answer the question.” There was an implied threat in Shepard’s voice, the kind that James would definitely have taken seriously had it been directed at him.

Conrad shifted nervously, suddenly unsure of himself now that he was under the glare of Commander Shepard. “I was just, uh...” James had to admit, a perverse part of him was enjoying letting the guy squirm.

Still, he did need to be better than that. “Just asking me about the food here, is all.” He looked to Conrad. “Right?”

“Uh, right! Jenna wanted to... to go on a date, and so-so, I, uh...”

Shepard shook his head. He probably had every idea of what had been going on, but if James wasn’t going to make an issue of it, neither would he. “You know what, Conrad? I don’t even care at this point. Just please. Go.” The ‘and stay out of my business for the rest of forever’ was implied.

“Sure-sure thing Commander. It was real nice seeing you again!” With that, Conrad scurried out of sight. He managed to trip over a table on the way out, and one of the waitresses shooed him away, probably figuring that having him trying to help would only make things worse. 

Shepard sighed and sat back down. “Do I even want to know?”

“I think he was trying to... ‘protect your honor’ or something.”

The thunk of Shepard’s head hitting the table was loud enough to draw attention.

***

Despite the good mood they were in leaving the restaurant (Conrad Verner notwithstanding), it ended up not lasting long. They’d finally reached the movie theatre, and James could feel his boots beginning to stick to the floor. He muttered under his breath about the subpar conditions here, though he guessed it came back to personnel shortages again. 

The issue came when Shepard saw the name attached to the movie: Risa Urvasen. He immediately groaned. James looked to him in confusion. Shepard shook his head – long story, didn’t want to get in to it here. But it said that the movie wasn’t going to be the fun diversion that he’d intended it to be. James heaved a heavy sigh.

The movie started, and, rather quickly, James began to understand Shepard’s point. The movie claimed to be an asari interpretation of a human classic, casting asari in all the parts but keeping much of the original writing intact. In James’s view, however, ‘Wing Commander’ was no classic. He found himself... bored. And, even if he wasn’t the scientific type, the inaccuracies were almost painful. Even if it was modified as little as possible to match up with modern notions of weaponry and combat, it was pretty clear no one really bothered to update the writing in terms of... well, pretty much everything else.

Worse yet, the popcorn was stale and in need of a lot more butter.

After about half an hour, James turned to Shepard, about to suggest that they just bail on the movie. Shepard apparently shared his opinion, as he’d managed to fall asleep.

James couldn’t really blame him – the things Shepard went through, he deserved any chance he could to get some sleep. If the movie was giving him the opportunity to get in some decent winks, James wasn’t gonna deny him that.

Of course, he wasn’t falling asleep just yet, though he was considering it. 

***

Shepard managed to wake up after the credits. James assured him he hadn’t missed much. “I can’t believe I actually slept through a movie...” Shepard murmured as they left the theater.

“Hey, you didn’t miss anything worthwhile, trust me. We should ask for our money back.” James was messing with his omni-tool, trying to find if he could book some practice time in the Armax Arena’s simulator ahead of time. It’d be nice if they’d show up and find that they could at least do this one thing right tonight...

Shepard noticed his distraction pretty easily. “Something the matter, James?”

James didn’t quite hear him, focused on his omni-tool. “Mierda...” James hissed in frustration, having seen that the current wait time on the simulator was at least an hour. That was an hour’s worth of time where something ELSE could go wrong. He deactivated the omni-tool and punched the wall, frustrated. The whole date had been a disaster, from the minute that he and Shepard had started. 

“James.” Shepard placed a hand on James’s back. “Hey. Whatever’s wrong-”

“This whole thing’s been wrong!” James suddenly exclaimed. “I... I tried to set up a good date for us, and then... All this crap happens. The restaurant’s closed, and we kept getting interrupted, and... and the movie was crap, and...” James sighed. “This was supposed to be...”

“What, a perfect date?” Shepard asked with a smile. “James, there’s no such thing as a perfect date. And you should know better.” He moved close and smiled at James. “The important thing was us being together.” He gave James a gentle kiss. “That’s enough for me.”

It took James a minute to really process that. He was having trouble wrapping his mind around how Shepard didn’t think it had been as bad as he did. He found his hands falling to Shepard’s waist, helping him get everything in perspective. Things hadn’t gone as planned, but he and Shepard had gone the whole day together. They might have had some issues but... Well, he couldn’t particularly argue with what Shepard had said. 

He let out a breath, recognizing he’d been overreacting. “I’m... kinda silly sometimes, eh, Loco?”

“You’re entitled. We all do silly things for a first date.”

“Oh, yeah? What’d you do?”

“I fell asleep during the movie, remember?”

The look on James’s face said he didn’t quite count that. “C’mon. You didn’t do anything else on this date you’d call silly?”

Shepard shrugged. “I’m here with you, aren’t I?”

“That’s low, Loco.” Though the joke was doing its job. James felt much more relaxed about how things had gone than he had just a few minutes ago. 

And Shepard clearly seemed to recognize it. He motioned to the stand to call a taxi. “C’mon. Let’s call a cab and head back to the apartment. We can watch a movie at home. Something worth watching. Maybe order a pizza.”

“Long as we order from someplace new. Last place burned the pepperoni.”

“I remember...”

**Author's Note:**

> Shepard's prior experiences with Risa Urvasen's work happen in [CITADEL,](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1847344) for those interested.


End file.
